Nokia Releases Symbian Update

The phrase “Most of the updated features are not directly visible to end users” is not what Nokia customers would have been hoping to hear about the first update of the new Symbian software.

Nokia today announced it is releasing the very first update (version 1.1) of its newly-named Symbian OS, which replaced Symbian^3 last October, however users may not be able to see much difference, as Nokia themselves freely admit. Update 1.1 will be available from today according to Nokia for the N8, C7, and C6-01 and will make the OS “even smoother to use.” Already on the Nokia Conversations site where the announcement was made, there have been quite a number of comments from Nokia users who have been unable to obtain the update and Nokia clarified that: “Country (SIM-free) and operator-specific variants will follow soon.”
So what will the new update actually bring? Well don’t get too excited but you will now be able to accept meeting request directly from email invitations and maps will be integrated into emails!!!!! Ok, apologies for the cynicism but these are not the updates Nokia users would have been hoping for such as an improved browser and better keyboard layout. On the positive side N8 users will get some additional functionality including the ability to zoom in and out in Word documents. Not exactly game changing though. New N8s will also come preloaded with three “high quality games” (Need for Speed Shift, Real Golf and Galaxy on Fire) however these are already available free from the Ovi Store for existing N8 users.

Despite the dearth of real features in the update, Nokia warns users that the update, available through Software Update on your device or using Ovi Suite, is pretty large and they should make sure they are on a free Wi-Fi connection when downloading it. While obviously this is pretty underwhelming, Nokia is promising more in the coming months: “We continue to enhance our smartphone experience throughout the 2011. Today’s update is not the last one you will see by far – be assured that there are further goodies on the way.” We’ll wait and see.